Walking
around farms...Indians in the shade...
...westerners in the sun
Many villages have electricity, but it’s by no means present
at every house or farm. Dung (in pats,
not so much on sticks here) is still used for fuel, and I saw oil lamps on many
shop counters at night, particularly outside larger towns.
Dung drying on a house wall
Within one village water from tube wells was pumped by both
electric pumps (electricity is subsidised by the national government) and, in
other places, diesel pumps (diesel is not subsidised). The difference in pumping costs must vary
production costs significantly. Many
pumps for domestic water are manual, or a combination of electricity + manual
(for when the power cuts out).
Electric irrigation pump
Diesel irrigation pump
Household pump for domestic water
Some things in the landscape, like buffaloes for draught
labour, jute harvesting or hand-rolling cigarettes seem unchanged for hundreds
of years while other things (mobile phones) are as modern as anywhere in the
world. The contrast is often startling.
Buffalo dray
Haystack
Cows feeding outside their byre
Many women hand roll cigarettes from local tobacco and
leaves in between other daily tasks.
They make around 1,500/day, for which they earn about Rs 200 (USD 4).
Local cigarettes
Many houses are made of thatch, thick mud brick, or small
bricks with mud render. They’re small
and seem to be shelters for use at night rather than daytime occupation (at
least when it’s not raining). Lots have
terracotta tile or corrugated iron (which much be hot!) rooves – very poor
shelters are that or corrugated iron lean tos.
A pretty swish house
Rice paddy w veg garden (L) and mud brick house (R)
Children having lunch
Our lunch being prepared
Woman farmer
Farmer – with his head covering and mustache (and round tum) he looked
like an extra from an Asterix and Obelix cartoon
Many households grow a basil plant
nearby – it’s cultivated as a living shrine and the basil is used for both
religious and medicinal purposes.
Apparently a basil leaf a day, taken in the morning, will keep you well
– if you prefer, you can steep a leaf in water overnight and drink the liquid
in the morning.
M with a basil shrine
Fruits from a type of palm tree are harvested and fermented
to make a liquor, which was served to us, hot, in one village we visited. After a long day touring the region it was
very welcome!
Ripe palm fruits
Fermented palm fruits
We visited the last village on our itinerary just on dusk,
and had a quick look at the paddies as the moon was rising. It was a beautiful evening, quiet and
peaceful: if it weren’t for the 20 other scientists present it would have been
very romantic J
Moonrise over paddy
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